?Chapter 6446 The Secret Department Ves appreciated the craftsmanship of the Cultivation Method Department. He and his mother were far from the only people who could formulate sound cultivation methods. The Five Scrolls Compact had a much wider impact on human civilization than he expected. A lot of old families had stubbornly preserved old cultivation scriptures or even attempted to keep up their practice over the centuries. Even though there was little use practicing these legacy cultivation methods in a low-energy environment, the old families continued to keep up this effort due to tradition and belief in the future. Now that red humanity had entered the Age of Dawn, the scattered legacies of ancient cultivation had made a resurgence once again. Ves did not know how, but the Red Collective successfully managed to attract enough cultivation experts to draft not one modern qi cultivation method in a year, but many more! If they managed to whip up this much in a short amount of time, Ves looked forward to what they could produce in 5 or 10 years. The best cultivation methods should be a lot more effective at that time! 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 Ves continued to chat a little more with Eliza about the cultivation methods available in the Repository. "The RC Merit Exchange charges much lower prices to the members of the Collective." The woman explained. "This makes it much easier for us to practice the more effective and promising cultivation methods. However, we still have to satisfy other criteria in order to prove we can make good progress in them. Our talent, comprehension and ability to pay for the relevant cultivation resources must all be satisfactory before we are allowed to redeem a high-grade method," "I see. I take it that outsiders have to pay a lot more RC merits to gain access to these premium methods." Eliza nodded. "The Red Collective must establish a dominant position in human society in the area of systematic cultivation. The Red Association continues to dominate in the area of mechs, and the Red Fleet maintains the largest and most powerful warfleets. If we cannot dominate in our own sphere, the public will not take us seriously anymore. This is why our current policies encourage us to practice more powerful methods right away, while encouraging the masses to start off with the weaker but also safer free curated cultivation methods." This was a clever scheme. The collies were predominantly hired for their talent and compatibility with systematic cultivation, so they should have much less trouble getting started with mid-grade and high-grade cultivation methods. Ordinary people tended to be a mixed bag in this regard. In order to avoid any waste in resources, it was better if the general public figured out where they stood by practicing the beginner cultivation methods first. Not only would they be able to build a solid foundation that should significantly increase their fault tolerance, they could easily determine their overall talent and affinities by tracking their progression speed and reactions to different. E energy attributes. While most of these folk should be able to earn enough RC merits to eventually redeem decent premium curated cultivation methods, the delay should be enough to give the collies a decisive head start! "I take it that starting off with the more powerful cultivation methods right away is hard on you and your colleagues. Ves guessed. "Especially since many of you are still new and unfamiliar with systematic cultivation. How often does cultivation deviation take place among the collies?" The female assistance's expression darkened. "More than we would like. The cultivation methods that are heavily derived from legacy samples tend to produce the most incidents. We have seen perfectly healthy and rational colleagues change overnight as they are overtaken by schizophrenia, crippling migraines, uncontrolled physical mutations, amnesia and brain death. This is despite the fact that we are directly imparted with the correct means to cultivate with the help of cultivation artifacts and classroom instructions." "Every person is different. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn't always work. Some cultivation methods need to be tweaked to suit the individual. Another factor that can play a role is that our modern understanding of ancient terms may be severely off. Translations are always imperfect. If you misinterpret a cultivation instruction, then the errors may be so significant that your entire practice suffers a critical flaw." "I have heard those theories from other sources. The cultivation scientists have worked on this problem and subsequently implemented several targeted improvements that should have cut down the rate of incidents. Their effectiveness is not high enough, but severe injuries and deaths no longer happen as frequently as before." Ves was not too interested in these teething problems. He just wanted to make sure that the death rate was not too exaggerated. He did not want to gamble with the lives of Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson and the other clansmen that would soon receive their invitations. After Ves learned what he could from Eliza about the popular cultivation methods in the Repository, she eventually concluded her miniature lecture. "A Secret Keeper of the Secret Department is on his way to begin the first of many private briefings with you." The woman smiled. "The meeting will take place right here in your main office. Rest assured that the security and privacy standards in this room are among the best in the Astral Octagon. Nothing less is acceptable to a chief councilor. This is also a good opportunity to test your new masterwork signal jammer." "The Secret Department?" "It is not a department that we announced during the founding ceremony, sir. I am not surprised that you are unaware of its existence, as we deliberately kept its establishment out of the hands of the Interim Leadership Council. It is the department that is tasked with protecting our secrets. It is also responsible for training spies, conducting clandestine operations and maintaining informant networks. Due to the large number of collies among us who hold double or even triple loyalties, it is impossible to effectively staff the Secret Department with current and former mechers, fleeters, Terrans, Rubarthans and so on. Every secret they come in touch with is liable to end up on the desks of every human power bloc the next day." Every large organization needed its spies. The Red Collective was no exception to that rule. Yet the problem that Eliza mentioned was a difficult one to solve. How could the Secret Department effectively keep everyone in the dark when the RC was predominantly staffed by people from other states and organizations? Ves threw out a guess. "Since you guys set this up without any fanfare, you clearly don't want anyone belonging to other groups to interfere with its establishment. That means that it doesn't draw its members from the same manpower pool. If my guess is right... it tries its best to seek out competent people who are not related to any of the established groups, is that correct?" Eliza nodded. "It goes further than that. The new recruits must completely forsake their old loyalties and pledge their permanent loyalty to the Red Collective and the Secret Department. The members of this department have been able to make use of a ritual or a cultivation method that somehow crases many people's impressions of the new recruits. Their ability to hide, deceive and make people forget about them only gets better over time. Their cultivation methods are completely secret and closed to the rest of us. We only know that they can be found in the Repository, but they can only be accessed by the right individuals who hold the right permissions." Interesting. The Secret Department went a lot further in this aspect than Ves expected. This department made the Black Cats look like amateurs! "Since the Secret Department is able to keep so many secrets away from the rest of us, who watches the watchers? Who can ensure that they remain in line? Unsupervised intelligence agencies have a persistent pattern of going rogue." "I am not privy to that information." Eliza helplessly spread her arms. "I am only told that the Red Collective has addressed this issue and that we should not be concerned about it. We are not encouraged to ask questions about the Secret Department." How mysterious. Ves did not gain a good impression about this department. He felt rather annoyed that he had never been consulted from beginning to end about its establishment. It caused him to realize that the Red Collective was not entirely in control of the states and organizations that nominated their people to the Lower and Upper Councils. Who did the members of the Secret Department answer to? Who held actual sway over them? What would happen if Ves ever came into conflict with this mysterious cabal? Ves couldn't figure it out, so he stopped bothering and simply accepted the lack of answers. He continued to chat with Eliza for a few minutes before a newcomer finally arrived. Predictably, the Secret Keeper was very hard to perceive at first. The Apocalypse Warden guards that stood outside the entrance to the main office completely missed the approach of this figure. It was not until the entrance to the office slid open that they recognized that they detected unusual activity, but even then they failed to identify the individual that managed to mask his presence to a high degree! As the person with the weakest cultivation in this section, Eliza failed to perceive the intrusion. Neither the hazy newcomer nor the door opening managed to register on her awareness! Ves was different. His perception and resistance to weird effects was much higher, so he could clearly note the entry of a plain-faced man wearing a nondescript gray uniform. Of course, Ves was also perceptive enough to notice that the latest arrival actively channeled an energy field around his body that seemed to do a lot to erase his presence! This trick reminded him a lot of the crazy cultists that he met a long time ago in the Faris Star Region at the galactic rim of the Milky Way. Ves still could not believe that so many different cultists managed to completely escape both human and electronic detection methods and walk in front of him and comrades without knowing any better! If the Secret Department inherited or imitated these spooky methods, then they were bound to achieve a lot of results in the coming years! Once the Secret Keeper took his place, he suddenly reduced the intensity of his masking effect, causing Eliza to become startled! "Ah! You Secret Keepers never fail to surprise me with your sudden appearance trick. The guards and I shall leave you with the chief councilor." Eliza and the pair of Apocalypse Guardians standing guard inside the office made their way out, leaving Ves alone with an extremely sketchy individual who could potentially launch an assassination attempt against one of the most senior officials of the Red Collective. Once the door closed, the newcomer activated a command that automatically caused the office to lock down and activate a lot of privacy measures. Ves also pushed the button to activate his new signal jammer. The interference field generated by this small device turned out to be a lot more powerful and comprehensive! The signal jamming measures were so effective that they even managed to dampen his connection to the Larkinson Network and other spiritual entities! Ves actually grew concerned about this effect. Was it strong enough to block the Blood Pact and render the Carmine System ineffective? Perhaps not. He clearly noticed that the super-class signal jammer was not able to cut off his connections to his external incarnations. He saw no need to share this particular secret. While all of these measures caused the air in the main office to become thick and charged with energies, Ves was still able to maintain his composure. "Who may you be?" He asked. "Secret Keeper Closier-17. A completely flat and generic voice replied. "I bear some of the secrets that you have been privileged to learn. Before I begin to share them with you, we must complete a ritual that monitors whether you have violated the rule that prohibits you from sharing our secrets to others without authorization. This measure may not be able to prevent you from doing this, but we will be able to detect the violation and take appropriate measures to remedy the issue." That was pretty smart. Ves could already figure out multiple ways to circumvent any measure designed to keep his mouth shut. Others could probably do the same. It was better to resort to the next-best option and simply monitor whether he had violated his oath of secrecy. It was much easier to detect such instances. "Very well. Please proceed. I am curious to learn what is truly going on in this dwarf galaxy."